Getting Oriented
- Bat Flight. The 400,000-member Brazilian free-tailed bat colony here snatches up 3 tons of bugs a night. Watch them leave at dusk from the park amphitheater.
- Carlsbad Caverns Big Room Tour. Travel 75 stories below the surface to visit the Big Room, where you can traipse beneath a 230-foot-tall ceiling and take in immense and eerie cave formations, directly beneath the park visitor center.
- Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park. Western river cooter turtles, javalinas, and Mexican gray wolves reside within naturalistic enclosures in this sprawling hilltop preserve on the west side of Carlsbad, a 40-minute drive north of the park.
- The Pecos River. Running through downtown Carlsbad, a beautifully landscaped stretch of this 926-mile landmark river gives life to boating, water-skiing, and fishing.
- Rattlesnake Springs. Nine-tenths of the park's 357 species of birds show up at Rattlesnake Springs as it's one of the few water sources in this area.
Guidebooks
Fodor's The Complete Guide to the National Parks of the USA: All 63 parks from Maine to American Samoa
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